Safety wheel-clamp.



T. H. HENSLEY.

SAFETY WHEEL CLAMP.

APPLIOATION FILED 001', 1, 1912.

1 97,431 Patented May 19, 1914.

17/54 #622 sZey THEAJDORE H. HENSLIEY, OF ST. .ALBANS, WEST VIRGINIA.

SAFETY WHEEL-CLAMP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 19, 1914.

Application filed October 1, 1912. Serial No, 723,406.

To all whom, it may concern. 1

Be it known that I, Trrnanonn H. I-InNs- LRY, a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Albans, in the county of Kanawha and State of lVest Virginia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Safety Wheel-Clamps, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to wheel clamping devices for railway cars or like vehicles; and has for an object to provide means for positively holding the wheel securely engaged with the rail and to thereby eliminate any possibility of movement of the axle in the journal box at the time of repairing the latter or when removing worn brasses therefrom and substituting therefor new brasses.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a wheel clamp, which may be readily adjusted to the wheel and disposed upon a supporting surface, such as the ground, at a point immediately adjacent the wheel, whereby to take efiective purchase against such surface on adjustment of the jack.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a car truck, showing the wheel clamp operatively associated with the wheel; and Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side elevation, showing the body jacked and the journal raised for the removal of the brasses.

-With a view to providing reliable means which will serve to hold the wheel of the rolling stock clamped upon the rail; pro viding means whereby the axle within the box will be held positively against movement with relation to adjacent portions of the box, whereby manipulation of the brasses may be made without fear of injuring the hands of the operator therebetween and providing such means that may be quickly associated with or removed from the wheel, I employ combined elements 1 and 2, which are associated or relatively arranged so as to collectively present the form of a Maltese cross.

The element 2 comprises a flat bar of metal having sustaining extensions 3 thereon and laterally-disposed with relation to the other element 1 of the clamp. The element 1 is constructed from a single piece of flat metal and as illustrated its attaching end is connected to the central portion of the element 2 by means of a rivet or the equivalent thereof 5, whereby the companion elements of the clamp can be readily separated to permit one to readily replace a worn element by a new one as the occasion may demand. At a point remote from one of the longitudinal edges of the element 2, the element 1 extends upwardly at 6 and then outwardly as at 7. Immediately in line with the attached portion of the element 1, said element 2 is struck up, as at 10 and then extended outwardly and upwardly at 11 where it is provided with a hand receiving hole 12.

In using the clamp when repairing the journal box or when removing the brasses therefrom, the clamp is first placed in the position with the wheel 9, as shown in Fig. 1, so that the portion 7 is in mutual contact with the wall of the groove 8 at a point directly beneath the axle. The extensions 3 find effective purchase with the ground so as to hold the wheel contacting portion of the clamp against casual derangement. A jack A such as shown conventionally herein is placed upon the element 1 of the clamp and disposed immediately beneath the journal box. The jack is then operated whereby to raise the car body to the position shown in Fig. 3. The wheel is then permanently secured to the rail and the axle is positively held associated with the adjacent walls of the journal box, whereby the latter is suspended in a fixed position, so as to insure manipulation of the brasses between the axles and the box and obviating all danger of the hands being caught between the brasses and the axle or an adja cent portion of the box. Under the present method of re-brassing cars, the car inspectors are required to have with them a variety of wooden blocks so that the wheels can be blocked between the car body and the top of the wheel. The variety of car construction now practised necessitates a large number of different sized blocks and as men are sent from point to point to re-brass cars these blocks prove cumbersome. To use blocks the men have to crawl under the cars to place them, and their lives are endangered as the cars are usually left in the train and are re-brassed while attached to the locomotive. The placing of the blocks requires a considerable amount of time. It has been demonstrated that one man with the hereinbefore described device can take out a worn brass and fit a new one in from 3 to 5 minutes while under the old system two men will do the same work in not less than 15 to 20 minutes. As the blocking is placed against the floor of the car to hold the wheel down injury is done to the car. This injury is avoided by the above described device. This device makes it possible to re-brass a car without requiring the men to go under the car, it saves time required to do the work and avoids injury to the car, and does not jeopardize the men while working in the box with their hands. All of these points, as well as others, set forth the utility of the device.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is A wheel clamp comprising a clamping plate and a supporting plate underlying the clamping plate and provided with a vertical intermediate ofiiset portion bearing directly against one end of the clamping plate and then extended outwardly therefrom and lying above the clamping plate, and a single fastening connecting the two plates together, the vertical offset of the supporting plate serving to hold the clamping plate against horizontal rocking move ments on its supporting plate.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

THEADORE H. HENSLEY. Witnesses:

C(A. ZERKLE, C. H. ZERKLE.

Copies of this patent may he obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0.

Cir 

